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The Mechanisms of Direct, Virus-Induced Destruction of Neurons

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The Mechanisms of Neuronal Damage in Virus Infections of the Nervous System

Part of the book series: Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology ((CT MICROBIOLOGY,volume 253))

Abstract

The mature neuron is a highly specialised, irreplaceable, post-mitotic cell and neuronal death leaves a permanent deficit. Therefore, irrespective of the cause, any extensive neuronal loss will have profound, if not fatal, consequences for the organism as a whole. The central nervous system (CNS) in humans and all higher orders of the animal kingdom is normally protected by both anatomical barriers and systemic physiological barriers of innate and specific immunity. A limited number of viruses have evolved strategies to penetrate these defences and to gain access to neurons that may result in direct neuronal destruction. However, the outcome of any infection is determined by the interplay between the tactics of the invader and the host response and this balance is equally relevant to viral infection of the CNS. This chapter will concentrate upon herpes simplex virus (HSV) encephalitis, which is still the commonest cause of sporadic acute encephalitis in immunocompetent individuals living in temperate parts of the world. In naturally occurring disease it is rarely possible to dissociate completely the direct cytopathic effects of the virus from cellular injury inflicted by the host immune system, but animal experiments that allow manipulation of certain facets have helped to elucidate the complex interactions and the mechanisms of neuronal destruction. Other chapters will deal more extensively with neurotropism but it will also be considered here in as much as a portal of entry into the CNS, together with susceptibility of CNS cell populations to permissive infection, are the essential prerequisites of virally mediated neuronal destruction.

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  1. Department of Histopathology, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, CB2 2QQ, UK

    J. R. Anderson

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  1. Universitätsklinikum Benjamin Franklin Abt. für Neuropathologie, FU Berlin, Fachbereich Humanmedizin, Hindenburgdamm 30, D-12200, Berlin, Germany

    Georg Gosztonyi M.D., Ph.D.

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© 2001 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Anderson, J.R. (2001). The Mechanisms of Direct, Virus-Induced Destruction of Neurons. In: Gosztonyi, G. (eds) The Mechanisms of Neuronal Damage in Virus Infections of the Nervous System. Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology, vol 253. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-10356-2_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-10356-2_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-08710-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-662-10356-2

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